Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 257

—————

This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

—————

“….”
Wait a moment. Could it be… was Cha Cha the one used as a test subject in the Mana Laboratory? Just as I was about to reach an epiphany, Mother Goddess explained the parts I hadn’t understood.
“Every new drug comes with various side effects. While researching Unit 1 to supply mana to all of humanity, we obtained a secondary achievement—radioactive purification capability. This child possesses an ability where their skills transform according to drug reactions.”
So they’d been indiscriminately cloning and conducting drug experiments, repeating the process until a skill emerged that could supply mana to all humanity. The byproducts from that process must have been staggering.
“You’ve grasped it correctly. Both the mana amplifier and the skill diffuser were created through this child’s sacrifice.”
To live long in a place without adults or experiments… So Mother Goddess had originally planned to create only one Cha Cha and live together indefinitely. She probably never anticipated that a friend would throw a tantrum wanting one too.
“Unit 1 simply has no memory of that time—just a child, nothing more. I did my best in my own way, but….”
On an Earth that had become a radioactive paradise, only Cha Cha could adapt and survive. Since Mother Goddess only possessed the genes of ordinary people, she could only live in environments from when the Ancient Humans thrived.
So Mother Goddess created a system, she said. During the process of humanity’s extinction and the transfer of concepts to the Underworld, she would attach the radioactive purification function. That way, the Underworld’s radioactive purification would accelerate, and Cha Cha could play alongside friends.
“But who could have predicted humanity wouldn’t go extinct before my lifespan ended.”
Mother Goddess covered her face with her hands as if sobbing. Gerth, who had been lazily killing off humanity, hung his head in shame.
“I had a complete plan too, you know? Humanity would live underground, mana users would live on the surface, and Unit 1 could create an environment to live happily going back and forth between both. After all, this child was the one Dr. MacDwell cared about until the very end.”
No wonder the Artificial Satellite Development Team was located directly beneath the Mana Research Institute. Was the team leader affiliated with the Mana Research Institute?
“If Aten Polat hadn’t acted on impulse, things would have gone roughly according to plan.”
The woman laughed, saying humans were indeed the most unpredictable and entertaining beings, then doted on Cha Cha while asking what they’d been playing all this time. There was no hint of regret about Cha Cha’s approaching end, which made me question everything.
“Cha Cha has completed the purification function and has little lifespan remaining, so they were advised to live on the surface. How much time does this little one have left?”
“Ehehehe, about one-tenth of their total lifespan?”
“….”
Cha Cha has lived 10,000 years so far, right? One-tenth of 10,000 years means they’ll live another 1,000 years?
“Yaaay! Evan and I will have a thousand-year marriage!”
Cha Cha fluttered about in their doctor’s coat, bouncing excitedly. Gerth wondered what a thousand-year marriage meant, and Cha Cha pulled a cassette tape player from their pocket and pressed play. My voice emerged, incredibly solemn.

“I don’t know how much time you have left. But I promise you—I will be with you for every remaining day.”

Cha Cha pressed the stop button with a click. Then, after rewinding, he hit play again, insisting I listen to the good part.
Gerth glared at me.
Mother Goddess lifted Cha Cha into her arms with a radiant smile.
“Our number one received a proposal and has grown up so well!”
“Hehe.”
My business here was finished. I thought it best to leave now.
“Wait, wait. Where are you going? We’re having private meetings now.”
Mother Goddess, who spoke like a countryside grandmother telling me to rest here for a few days after coming all this way, held individual meetings with number one, the Machine King, and Gerth in turn, then declared she would offer meetings to anyone from Serpent King’s Tower’s demi-humans and demons who wished for one.
I’d anticipated many participants, but I hadn’t expected even Serpent King’s Tower’s ego to book a meeting. In any case, listening to all their stories took a full two days, and as the last in line, I was forcibly dragged by Mother Goddess’s hand to some Bamboo Forest.
“It’s been a while since you’ve seen this, hasn’t it? Where you came from, pandas would have driven it to extinction.”
“I saw bamboo fairly often there too. Gerth even split it and made baskets from it.”
“…Why?”
“Did you assume Cha Cha would have driven bamboo to extinction because of the Underworld’s pandas?”
“Yes.”
“You’re generally omnipotent, but not omniscient, it seems.”
“Don’t drag this out—just tell me.”
“The Panda Butler doesn’t know the taste of bamboo, so he’s been eating meat instead. Pandas were originally carnivorous before they started eating bamboo, weren’t they?”
“Of all things!”
Number one laughed, saying she’d naturally assumed the bamboo had been driven to extinction to feed the pandas, but the Female Informant found it amusing to overturn such expectations.
Indeed, Cha Cha had a tendency to be indifferent to the Surface World’s ecosystem, devoted entirely to his own desires. I learned this while exploring Underworld cuisine—this starving child had been selectively gathering all the most delicious plants and animals from the Surface World and hoarding them underground.
“Everyone else had public meetings, so why did you call me separately?”
“First, take this.”
What Mother Goddess handed me was something like a company ID badge. It had Mother Goddess’s face—that is, Dr. MacDwell’s photograph—and bore the title of Ursh Project Team Leader.
“Tada! Time paradox prevention!”
“What do you mean?”
“This is Ursh’s blessing.”
“…”
Ursh’s blessing—wasn’t that the thing that imposed a time limit on me or gave experience points if the story went off track?! I naturally assumed it had to be one or the other?!
“Why do you think the Research Laboratory door opened and top secrets were declassified through Ursh’s blessing?”
“I just! Thought! It was! A side effect!”
“How pitiful… you really are a fool.”
The Goddess rebuked me, saying that time limits weren’t exclusive to me alone—Mother Goddess could impose them on all of Humanity as needed—and that story development and such were the author’s domain, not hers.
…Now that I think about it, that makes sense.
“Then who’s been giving me those story development turning points one after another?”
“That would be Yeomyeong. Aten Polat.”
“Why is Sunbird called Yeomyeong?”
“That name means the light that brightens as day breaks. To live in the Chinese character sphere, he changed his name to that style.”
Wait, could that Yeomyeong be related to 【Yeomyeong’s Repentance】? Was that novel a confession record by Kim Yeomyeong? What was he confessing about? Was the pen name Park Myung a play on words? Because dusk is called park myung?
“This daughter-in-law of mine—I wouldn’t be surprised even if you said you weren’t possessed by a book.”
“Gasp! I wasn’t possessed by a book?!”
“You saw with your own eyes that you were dragged to Earth in the distant future! So why are you still clinging to that book?!”
“But this is! This is the novel I was reading, and this is!”
“You’re truly an idiot….”
I’m aware of it, so please stop calling me an idiot over and over—hearing it makes this idiot sad.
As I tore at my hair, agonizing over whether this was book possession or something else entirely, Mother Goddess also tore at her hair, lamenting where on earth she should even begin explaining so this fool could understand.
“The reason I specifically told the Second Dragon to come back to the past after becoming the King of Ten Thousand Demons was to spare myself the trouble of explanation since he’d already know everything. But this fool, this absolute fool, I can’t—”
“You’re the one who dragged me here, so take responsibility and explain.”
“For an idiot, you certainly have sharp instincts.”
Mother Goddess, deep in thought, opened a window and showed me Sunbird Polat’s face.
“This child was a mage, yet the most altruistic and self-sacrificing person. I thought that whether he bore the stigma of annihilating humanity for the Demon Race or chose another path, he would save everyone.”
“Can’t mages be altruistic?”
“Of course not. At first, I assumed humanity would exterminate itself through mutual slaughter, so I only granted magic skills to those with antisocial personality disorders.”
“Oh….”
So the fact that mages were all madmen was actually based on extremely logical reasoning. Indeed, giving great power to someone who loves killing people would certainly make the population dwindle rapidly.
“You must know about meeting Sera and how, even after using the Infinite Possibility skill, he couldn’t find a hopeful future and hid in the past?”
“A Sunbird from the same possibility as me told me about it.”
“Apet stole my power and the Serpent King’s Tower’s teleportation ability to hide in the past. He thought that if he went back before I existed, he wouldn’t be interfered with by me, and if he activated the Infinite Possibility skill at an even earlier point in time, a desired future would await him.”
“I heard that too. If you fix a possibility, the original Sunbird’s existence disappears, right?”
“That was the problem. He wasn’t a god. He was merely human.”
What is possible for a god is impossible for humans. Somehow, I felt like I understood. I spoke to Mother Goddess exactly as I felt.
“Did that bastard get scared?”
“Your way of speaking is really cheap.”
“That’s not my fault. Mitchell’s influence was significant in that one.”
“Mitchell would feel wronged if she heard that.”
In any case, the expression might be slightly different, but the meaning doesn’t change, the Female Informant said, nodding that my words were correct.
“Even if he was once blinded by love, as time passed, he came to realize it. That ceasing to exist is terrifying.”

—————

This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

—————